


Appears In Fiery Form

by icarus_chained



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alchemy, Developing Relationship, Friendship, Gen, Partnership, Philosophy, Science, Superheroes, The Philosopher's Stone, Transmutation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7257631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most people, on discovering the ability to transmute one material into another, would think of one specific thing first and foremost. Jax doesn't. Martin does. There's a bit more to consider in the thought than just turning base metals into gold, though, and in the end maybe that's the least important part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Appears In Fiery Form

**Author's Note:**

> "In its fourth nature it appears in a fiery form (not quite freed from all imperfections, still somewhat watery and not dried enough), wherein it has many virtues making the old young and reviving those at the point of death. For if to such an one there be given, in wine, a barleycorn's weight of this fire, so that it reach the stomach, it goes to his heart, renewing him at once, driving away all previous moisture and poison, and restoring the natural heat of the liver. Given in small doses to old people, it removes the diseases of age, giving the old young hearts and bodies. Hence it is called the Elixir of Life.
> 
> In its fifth and last nature, it appears in a glorified and illuminated form, without defects, shining like gold and silver, wherein it possesses all previous powers and virtues in a higher and more wondrous degree. Here its natural works are taken for miracles. When applied to the roots of dead trees they revive, bringing forth leaves and fruit. A lamp, the oil of which is mingled with this spirit, continues to burn for ever without diminution. It converts crystals into the most precious stones of all colours, equal to those from the mines, and does many other incredible wonders which may not be revealed to the unworthy."
> 
> \--- "The Book of the Revelation of Hermes", Theophrastus Paracelsus, concerning the Philosopher's Stone.

Firestorm could transmute things. Change stuff into other stuff. There was one place you could go with that, or one place you'd think people would go with that. 

Jax swore, honest to god, it hadn't even occurred to him. He'd been too busy thinking about making it work, roping Grey into making it work, working together long enough to do it right. And, okay, also about how cool it was. Shit, man, this was magic right here. Turning water into wine, or rather universe-destroying meteors into water. That was just straight-up amazing. He'd been too caught up in that, in just having _done_ it, the feel of the two of them working together to make that happen. He honestly hadn't thought about the obvious place to go with it after that.

Stein had. 'Cause Grey, he acted all straight-and-narrow, even high-and-mighty sometimes, but deep down there was still so much of that stoner college student in him, the one that heard 'don't even think about it' as 'come and show me what you got'. There was a giddy thing in Grey that was actually so much like Snart sometimes, that streak of 'I do what I want because I can'. And maybe a few other things like Snart as well. Enough to ... think in certain directions sometimes.

Though the science was part of it too. Nuclear physicist apparently wasn't too far from alchemist some days. And transmutation had apparently always called to mind certain things.

Water into wine. And base metals into gold.

Jax blinked down at the little pile of it on their table. Most of it had been bits of wrecked bulkhead not so long ago, a few metal table legs, miscellaneous odds and ends of broken metal lying around the place. The Waverider got bashed up a lot. There hadn't exactly been a shortage. They'd gotten the hang of this around the second or third try. They could ... they could probably fill a couple of crates with the stuff now if they wanted to. Metal. Silver. Gold. Shit. Give them a day and a junkyard, they could curl up on a pile of the shit like the smallest, grumpiest, most argumentative dragon ever. Fiery breath and all.

It'd suit Stein, actually. Grey fit that image right down the line. And, yeah. It was possible that Jax was just a little hysterical over here. He hadn't thought of it. _Honest to god_. It straight-up had not occurred to him. And now ...

He wasn't thinking about his mom, and missed scholarships, and the fact that superheroing around the timeline didn't exactly leave him a lot of time to work on supporting her. Sure he wasn't. Just like Grey wasn't thinking about all the years he'd spent scrambling for funding for his research, all the risks that had come with it, about soldiers and governments and cattle prods. About Star Labs, too, and other people he could support. Weren't thinking about that, nope.

Like they weren't thinking about Snart, either. Like they weren't thinking what a thing it would have been to show ... to show their unflappable thief something like _this_. That would have been something, man. That would have been a hell of a thing.

Out of nowhere, standing there beside him, Grey huffed out a laugh. He was shaking his head when Jax looked at him. He was just shaking it carefully from side to side, his eyes still caught up in their little pile of precious metals, this sort of dazed, disbelieving smile on his face. Jax could feel it. He could feel the surge of grim, ironic humour from his partner.

"Nuclear transmutation," Stein murmured gently. "Magnum opus. The great work. Of course it's possible regardless, with the right set up, but the costs are exorbitant. A quick, easy way to turn base metals into gold. They've been searching for that for centuries. And here we are, you and I. Transmutation at the touch of a hand. In the end, all it took to make a philosopher's stone was ... an accident of fate. The collision of two separate life's works. Myself and _Eobard Thawne_ , of all people. There has to be a certain irony in that. Evidence of a certain sense of humour at work, don't you think?"

He looked up at Jax, and there was a wild, hysterical edge to his smile. There was a deep, ironic bemusement at the universe and everything in it. Grey got like that sometimes. It generally wasn't one of his safer moods.

"... I'm pretty sure there was more to the stone than that," Jax offered carefully, after a few seconds. "We're good, Grey, but I'm not sure we're all that just yet. Wasn't there something about an elixir of life too? 'Cause I don't know about you, but I ain't seen anything like that yet."

Which, in hindsight, probably _hadn't_ been the wisest thing to say. Grey was weird enough right now without throwing Ronnie into it. But Stein didn't react quite the way Jax would have expected. An odd look came over his face, a strange, distant contemplation, and Jax could feel ... realisation, mostly, fear and trepidation and sudden contemplation. Sudden wondering. Stein got that look on his face, and Jax swore to god, it was one of the scariest expressions in the world.

"A fourth form," Stein murmured distantly. "In it's fourth nature it appears in a fiery form, making the old young and reviving those on the point of death." 

He looked at Jax, a bemused sort of expression on his face, contemplation, and for his part Jax felt a bit of a stone drop into his stomach as well. Because that was the Philosopher's Stone, he got that, but he got Grey's point as well, because that ... that wasn't such a bad description of Firestorm either. Looked at a certain way, anyway. Stein was young, wasn't he, when they shared bodies. A fiery form where the old were young. And fusing had brought Stein back from the point of death. Ronnie too, actually. The only one it hadn't yet was Jax himself, and for a moment there Jax really wished they'd transmuted something to wood as well as gold, because if ever there was a thought to knock on wood after, _that_ was it. 

Not that he was sure that would work, suddenly. Did it count of you made the wood yourself?

He felt a bubble of humour at that, the thought, just at the absurdity of it, and then he was laughing, and then abruptly Stein was laughing too. Properly, this time, genuinely instead of ironically. Something snapped, something went away, and then it was just the two of them again, two giddy superheroes with a pile of scrap gold on a table in front of them. A poor dragon's hoard, for the craziest, most mixed-up dragon in existence.

They weren't the Philosopher's Stone. Yeah, okay, they might _look_ like it in places, but they weren't the real thing. They could turn lead into gold, sure, but they weren't immortal. They weren't the wisdom of the ages, whatever Grey might think sometimes. They couldn't fix the world or bring people back from the dead. Jax might not know too much about it, but he figured a mythical thing that people had been searching for for centuries would turn out to be a bit more special than just a crazy old man and a kid with a busted leg who'd managed to get themselves fused into a superhero. Even if they did happen to be shit-hot at the job.

Nah. What was it Stein had said? An accident of fate. That was more them, really. Just an accident of fate, and maybe not such a bad one either.

"... Come on, man," he said, reaching over to sling his arm around his partner's shoulder. "You're getting weird down here. Let's leave alchemy alone for a while and see what everyone else is doing instead, hmm?"

"Nuclear physics," Grey corrected. Huffily, except for the little twitch at the corner of his mouth, the little hint of a tease. "Not alchemy, Jefferson. Physics." 

Jax raised his eyebrows at him. "Yeah, 'cause _I'm_ the one talking about mythical rocks over here," he said, shaking his head. "Okay, you know what? No more gold for you. You get weird about it. I expected better of you, Grey. I leave you alone down here, you really are going to turn into a dragon with a junkyard hoard, aren't you?"

Grey raised his own eyebrow at that. Wondering at the specificity of the image, maybe. Jax refused to be wilt at it. They had as much in common with a dragon right now as they did with a mystic stone. Or Stein did, anyway. To be fair, Stein tended to have a bit in common with a dragon at the best times as well. Jax defied anyone to tell him different, and he _definitely_ defied Grey to deny it. If anything, the man ought to be flattered by it. He took enough pride in being grumpy at times.

And after a second, Stein seemed to mentally concede the point. He shook his head and reached up to gently take Jax' arm off his shoulder, smiling faintly at him all the while. 

"As though you were any less affected, my boy," he pointed out wryly. "But I take your point. Perhaps we should ... leave the question of treasures and immortality for another time. There is, after all, such an idea as too much of a good thing. Though I will point out that it was more the potential _knowledge_ , the ramifications, rather than the gold itself that I was interested in. It may be an old and ... less than scientific idea, but the concept of the philosopher's stone, particularly in relation to our circumstances, is a fascinating one. Not least, perhaps, because that fiery form ... wasn't the last." He paused, looked at Jax thoughtfully, and rather fondly too. "We've come a long way, Jefferson, you and I together. It's possible we have a long way to go yet, and perhaps a lot more that we can learn to accomplish."

Jax blinked at him for a long second. Feeling that mix of fondness and annoyance and vague alarm that Grey always pulled out of him these days. 'Cause the man didn't stop, you know? He had that giddy thing in him, 'I do what I want because I can'. You could keep your Vandal Savages, all the time-travelling psychopaths in the world. There was nothing scarier than Professor Martin Stein when he'd made up his mind to try and _do something_.

And, you know, maybe nothing quite as thrilling either. But shush. Jax wasn't ever going to mention that. Man had a big enough head sometimes as it was.

"... You know what, Grey?" he said at last, looking wryly over at their pile of shiny metal. "You and me, what we can do already? I'm nearly thinking the gold would be the safer option. Least dragons don't tend to get out much. Maybe locking you in a room with a pile of shiny things would be the safer for everybody."

Grey raised that eyebrow again, and grinned at him. "I assure you, Mr Jackson, I am perfectly capable of making _anything_ unsafe. Really. Where would the fun be otherwise?"

Which, Jax thought, grinning helplessly back at him. Which, you know. Fair point. They weren't the best in the world at 'safe'. Either of them. If they had been, they'd never have gotten back aboard this flying lunatic asylum, would they?

Maybe that was the reason he hadn't thought about transmuting gold straight away. Because when it came down to it, when it came down to him and Grey, Firestorm, what they were and what they could do? 

Man, turning base metal into gold wasn't even the _half_ of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise I'll give these two a rest soon. I just ... I find them so fascinating. My apologies -_-;


End file.
